Romulo Betancourt

Romulo Betancourt (22 February 1908-28 September 1981) was President of Venezuela from 19 October 1945 to 17 February 1948 (succeeding Isaias Medina Angarita and preceding Romulo Gallegos) and from 13 February 1959 to 13 March 1964 (succeeding Edgar Sanabria and preceding Raul Leoni). As the leader of the Accion Democratica party, Betancourt led Venezuela towards democracy, and he founded the 20th century Venezuelan democracy.

Biography
Romulo Betancourt was born in Guatire, Venezuela in 1908, and he was exiled to Costa Rica for radical agitation; he founded and led a number of radical and communist groups in exile. He was first exiled in 1936 and again in 1939 for opposition to the ilitary regime, and he returned in 1941 to found the left-wing Accion Democratica party. Betancourt's movement soon attracted popular support, and he took power in a military coup in 1945. Betancourt inaugurated a program of social reform, land redistribution, and the imposition of greater controls over oil companies. He was exiled again in 1948 after Carlos Delgado Chalbaud and the military overthrew him, but he came back from exile ten years later and was elected President. His maina chievement was to establish and strengthen the new democracy, and he controlled and curtailed the influence of the armed forces before writing the new constitution in 1961. He left office in 1964, and he died in New York City in 1981 at the age of 73.